Tips, tactics and strategies to help you have a Perfect Workday AND a lighter heart.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

How Do You Know What You Don't Know?

How do you find out about new products, ideas, or lifestyles?

Current research is showing that most of us are increasingly getting our information from the Internet and we are logging on to sites that focus on information, ideas, attitudes and products that we already feel comfortable with and know about.

In other words, we aren't being exposed to ideas that are unfamiliar to us. So, how will you learn about new things if you spend most of your time with that which is already comfortable to you?

Here's an idea I've used for years: When you are standing in line at the grocery store reach over and pick up a magazine you would not normally purchase. Don't buy it. Simply skim the table of contents. I can promise you that you'll see a topic you don't know anything about. At that point you have gone from Stage 1 of Knowledge, "Don't know that you don't know," to Stage 2, "You know that you don't know."

Stage 3 is, "You know that you know," and Stage 4 is, "You know and do based on Second Nature."

Other ways to become exposed to new ideas are simple; talk to people about topics that you find interesting but know little about, view TV programs about new topics, subscribe to magazines such as The Week, which offers a wide range of topics and information. You could take a course, online or classroom. You could browse the Internet.

If you stick only with what you know you won't grow.

And, if there is one thing we all have to do in today's world, it's grow.

Contact

Mike Collins is president of The Perfect Workday Company, an information company based in The Research Triangle Region of North Carolina. He presents 100+ programs a year for organizations such as IBM, American Express, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals and The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Center.